Zoo in the winter

The kids just went to Trevor zoo this week on a field trip. They were freezing but had so much fun seeing the otters play in the cold weather. Orla also really enjoyed the red wolf and red panda. The only complaint was that the monkey indoor room display was SMELLY! At least, there won't be any pet monkeys added to the christmas wish lists:)

Holiday field trips and educational fun. . .

With the Christmas just around the corner, it's hard to completely focus on "traditional work" so we've been adding a lot of fun and educational field trips to our daily activities. The kids had so much fun doing a "who dunnit" day at Staatsburgh Historic house with costumed characters and props. They interviewed the suspects, toured the old hudson valley mansion and learned a bit about Fulton (inventor of steamships). It was a letter of Fultons that was framed and "stolen" from Mrs.Mills' mansion. Since we did units on the hudson river and inventors, the mystery tied perfectly into our learning! The kids also enjoyed a "board game/card game" day at the local library and met up with some of their local homeschooling friends. They had so much fun together that after the time was over they all went sliding down one of our local park's hills. Lots of fun! We learned a little more about the Jewish holidays playing dreidle with Eoghan's speech teacher . She gave him one and taught him how. Then he showed us. Lastly, the kids might be taking a field trip into the city tomorrow. Santa is on his way soon. Eoghan is looking for more stuff for his science lab (he loves chemistry!). Orla got one present early (a puppy!) which has taught her a lot about responsibility. She has been reading books about golden retrievers to help her learn more about her puppy. Two fictional books she enjoyed were Runaway Retriever and One Golden Year (about a girl who raises a assistant dog).

Our Christmas video for 2009

Science on the mind. . .

We are in the midst of our "inventors and inventions" theme unit and the kids are LOVING it! We have been studying Edison, Tesla, Bell, Franklin, DaVinci, etc. as some of the great inventors. Eoghan was so inspired he created his own invention lab in a room in our house. Now, I can find Orla or Eoghan sneaking away to look through microscopes at prepared slides (by Learning Resources) or playing with magnets. They also have fallen in love with the Periodic Table (unusual, I know:)! They read a book, The Periodic Table, elements with style and the author made the elements sound like pokemon critters complete with fun drawings and descriptions of the good and bad things they do. What a different way to introduce the table than the way I remember as a child!

The kids submitted this to our local Homeschool Journal